Massive bond project aims to transform city

Updated 11:09 pm, Tuesday, November 22, 2011

If the bond issue is approved by voters, Hemisfair Park would be infused with $30 million for revitalization.

If the bond issue is approved by voters, Hemisfair Park would be infused with $30 million for revitalization.

Photo: BILLY CALZADA, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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City staff has recommended replacing three outdated fire stations, where the larger, more modern fire engines won't fit in the garages.

City staff has recommended replacing three outdated fire stations, where the larger, more modern fire engines won't fit in the garages.

Photo: EDWARD A. ORNELAS, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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The program calls for $30 million in improvements and $13.5 million in drainage work on Hausman Road between Loop 1604 and Interstate 10.

The program calls for $30 million in improvements and $13.5 million in drainage work on Hausman Road between Loop 1604 and Interstate 10.

Photo: EDWARD A. ORNELAS, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

Massive bond project aims to transform city

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The nationally renowned HemisFair Park that Mayor Julián Castro envisions — one that's as recognizable as Central, Millennium and Golden Gate parks — could begin to take shape if voters approve the city's massive bond program next year.

The bond issue, if approved by voters, would infuse the downtown park with $30 million for a world-class playground, a “Children's Square,” landscaping, new civic space and other amenities. Historic buildings would be restored, new streets would be built and connected to a streetcar line recently funded by the city, county and VIA Metropolitan Transit.

Slated to receive $15 million each from the streets and parks propositions, it's arguably the marquee project of the 2012 bond program and would be an earnest step toward meeting one of Castro's key priorities.

“I think that HemisFair is the most symbolic,” Castro said of the project list. “Substantively it's a very important project, but symbolically for San Antonio it's very important.”

The bond issue is split into four propositions worth $596 million — the largest in city history — that would invest in city streets, facilities, drainage projects and park improvements. It combines a number of high-profile projects, such as the northern interchange of U.S. 281 and Loop 1604, with smaller, more basic upgrades such as outfitting libraries with better air conditioners.

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The list of 131 projects still is under review. City staff developed the list with public input, council members' feedback and expert opinion, Castro said. Now, four citizen committees are vetting the lists.

The program would inject almost $76.4 million into at least six projects for downtown. That's a significant increase over the 2007 bond program, which allocated less than $20 million for downtown.

It's the philosophy of “rough proportionality,” first used in the 2007 bond program that enables the city to pursue major projects such as the interchange and HemisFair. In previous bond programs, City Manager Sheryl Sculley said, smaller amounts were equally divided among the 10 council districts, which meant fewer impactful projects were accomplished.

Still, Sculley and Castro both say the bond program is fair across the city.

“I'm convinced that the bond project does right by every single community in the city,” Castro said. “It addresses a lot of projects that have been on the board, very necessary projects.”

A ‘world-class' park

HemisFair is a prime example for the type of “transformative” projects that are possible under the city's concept of rough proportionality, officials say.

They say voters will see their investment begin to manifest quickly, even by 2013, if the bond is approved in May.

Plans for the playground have yet to be developed, but he said the site would serve several purposes. It will have multiple levels, Andújar said, ascending into the canopy of heritage trees and offering a rich, interactive experience.

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“It's education; it's sustainability; it's art and sculpture and play and education,” he said. “That's what that new world-class playground is all about.”

He said the playground likely would be functional by 2013.

Funding from the parks proposition also would be used to rehabilitate a historic acequia, design and build civic space at Children's Square, restore the historic German buildings, integrate landscaping and art and include space for a nonprofit cultural institution.

The $15 million from the streets proposition would cover construction of new roads in the park for mixed-use development of commercial, retail and residential projects.

The redevelopment agency also is planning for funding from a potential 2017 bond issue that could build an amphitheater and underground parking on the northwest corner of the park, where the oldest part of the convention center now stands. Andújar said there also are discussions about funding from a 2022 bond program.

“You have to have a long-term, executable plan, but we're also acting today,” he said. “We can't wait for everything to perfectly fall into place. We must proceed now so that the community can see the impact of their investment in the HemisFair area.”

HemisFair is but one of several downtown projects that Castro says stem from the community-driven SA2020 planning process that prioritized revitalization of the city's urban core.

Paving the way

When Castro talks about what he hopes to leave as his legacy, he's quick to point out he wants to create “a culture of higher expectations and aspirations” by increasing the number of graduates from high school and college.

But he also acknowledges his administration's desire to change San Antonio's skyline.

“We want to completely revitalize the urban core, infuse it with more people, more establishments, more buildings,” he said.

The 2012 bond will help lay the groundwork to attract private-sector development to drive that revitalization, Castro said.

A $40 million investment to fix downtown streets might seem mundane, but the way the mayor explains it, those dollars are catalytic.

The money would make the streets — which have yet to be fully identified — “more investment-ready for folks as they consider opening up a restaurant, opening up a store somewhere,” Castro said.

While the city has identified more than $225 million worth of downtown street projects, city staff must narrow that list to what's affordable in this bond — $40 million.

Officials say necessary street work includes simplifying the configuration of several confusing intersections, such as the roundabout at the red Torch of Friendship sculpture adjacent to Rivercenter mall.

Other difficult intersections under consideration include the confluence of San Pedro, Main Avenue and Navarro Street, and another where St. Mary's Street meets Navarro and Nueva streets.

The precise scope of the downtown street work won't be determined until city staff gets the results of two studies, one related to downtown transportation, the other focused on streets and design at HemisFair Park, Assistant City Manager Peter Zanoni said.

Other downtown projects include investments in the Alamo Plaza, Veterans Plaza and the Central Library.

Capital improvements

For all of its attention to downtown, the 2012 program still places most of its emphasis on projects in suburban areas — from massive road and drainage projects to significant construction of city facilities and parks investments.

City officials have divided the $596 million bond, the most the city can issue without raising taxes, over four propositions set to receive varying amounts:

Streets, sidewalks and bridges: $340 million.

Parks: $65 million.

Drainage: $130 million.

Facilities and community initiatives: $61 million.

Chief Financial Officer Ben Gorzell said the city would sell 20-year notes, likely in five annual issuances. Based on the city's estimate, Gorzell said he expects financing the $596 million over two decades to cost $467.9 million, bringing the total of principal and interest to $1.06 billion.

Castro and his advisers, along with city staff, say now's the time for investment. Interest costs are low, and construction, materials and professional services tend to be cheaper during tough economic times, they said.

Under the drainage proposition, of the 17 recommended projects, some would take hundreds of homes out of the floodplain, and one would keep a major interstate highway from flooding.

A $12.5 million project along McCullough Avenue would relieve flooding on the lower deck of Interstate 35 through downtown — a regular problem during heavy rains that often forces closure of the road, said Mike Frisbie, the director of Capital Improvement Management Services, the city department that oversees bond programs.

City officials hope to complete the second phase of drainage improvements at the Seeling Channel near Woodlawn Lake, a $24.6 million project designed to remove 120 properties from the flood plain.

On the East Side, channel construction along Menger Creek, between North Walters and Rio Grande streets, will eliminate another 92 homes from floodplain.

On the far Northwest Side, the bond program calls for $30 million in street improvements and $13.5 million in drainage work for a segment of Hausman Road between Loop 1604 and Interstate 10. That project is expected to reduce traffic congestion around the University of Texas at San Antonio's main campus.

The bond issue also would pay for a senior center on the Northeast Side.

City staff has also recommended improvements at 30 percent of the city's 234 parks, including larger spaces such as Brackenridge, Hardberger and Woodlawn Lake parks, but with significant dollars spread across more neighborhood recreational areas, Frisbie said.

The city wants each investment to have an impact, Frisbie said, no matter the size of the park.

In the facilities category, the city has proposed investing $16.4 million into the library system, which would include construction of a new branch library on the North Side, improvements at several other branches, and $4 million for repairs and renovations at the Central Library.

City staff has recommended replacing three outdated fire stations, where the larger, more modern fire engines won't fit in the garages. On the South Side, a one-stop community center is slated for the facilities proposition. Plans also call for a new $2.2 million kennel facility at the Animal Care Center headquarters.

Both the Witte and Children's museums — the latter of which plans to move into a new facility on Broadway — currently are scheduled to receive $4 million and $3 million, respectively.

But the majority of bond dollars will be spread out among street, bridge and sidewalk projects across the city, ranging from bridge replacements to intersection improvements in the Medical Center.

For the future

The vetting process that leads to the May election still is under way. The citizen bond committees are expected to meet for at least one more round of meetings in the first week of December, and a couple of them likely will take a bus tour of potential project locations. They'll then make final recommendations to the City Council.

By early 2012, the council is expected to vote on the final list of projects and call the May election.

For Castro, this list of bond projects is a down payment for all of San Antonio — a bond that, if passed, will continue to lay the groundwork for not just transformative projects, but a transformed city.

“I do believe that the skyline you see in the urban core in 2011 will be quite different from the skyline of 2021,” he said.